Magic: Reincarnate from high-voltage electricity at the start, level up independently.

As the unanimous voices fell, Xu Wan suddenly snapped out of her daze, staring at the white-haired girl in front of her with a look of utter shock: "Wait, how do you know it's an Abyss Aberration? Could it be... that you've also been to the Fourth World?"

"certainly."

Chu Ge responded calmly, casually throwing out a remark: "I also know that you smashed someone else's Rolls-Royce."

Xu Wan: "..."

broken!

She really has been to the Fourth World!

She never mentioned this secret to anyone!

"Let's go take a look first." Chu Ge stepped out of the spiritual spring, his tone calm. "If it's confirmed to be an abyssal mutant, we must completely eradicate it before it causes widespread destruction."

"Understood!" Xu Wan nodded emphatically.

Having experienced the Fourth World firsthand, she knew better than anyone the terror of the Abyss Aberration—its immense power and destructive force far surpassed that of ordinary monsters.

When the two rushed to the vicinity of the red light, a crowd had already gathered around them. Some clever people had even started live streaming, frantically calling out "Big Brother" and "Big Sister" to attract viewers and ride the wave of popularity.

The Demon Hunting Bureau team stationed nearby also arrived in time, quickly set up a cordon, and kept all irrelevant personnel outside.

"Everyone, don't run around too far, and be careful! Whatever you do, don't go near that red sphere!" Wang Jian sternly warned the students who were gathering around, his expression serious.

"Don't worry, teacher, I'm a coward!" The chubby boy shrank back quietly, pulling the classmate next to him in front of him to shield him.

The surrounding crowd: "..."

Not long after, the floating red ball of light suddenly began to move, its light twisting and churning wildly, slowly tearing open a void rift more than ten meters long.

From the depths of the crack, a piercing creaking sound emanated continuously, as if something was gradually approaching the real world along the crack.

"Everyone, retreat immediately!"

The leader of the Demon Hunting Bureau, his face ashen, shouted sternly, "All personnel on alert! Attack immediately if any strange object rushes out!"

"clear!"

The dozen or so members of the Demon Hunting Bureau responded in unison, raising their weapons and aiming them intently at the dark void rift.

Squeak, squeak...

The eerie sound grew closer, seemingly echoing at the edge of the crack, its piercing sound sending chills down one's spine.

In the distance, Chu Ge's gaze remained fixed on the crack, his face expressionless.

"...It's coming out."

The entire audience held their breath instantly, everyone tensed up, and dared not be careless in the slightest.

Wang Jian immediately activated his inner magic power, and a pale blue halo instantly enveloped his entire body. He stood in front of everyone, ready to create a protective barrier for the students should any accident occur.

But one minute, two minutes... a full ten minutes passed.

The eerie sound grew increasingly frantic, yet nothing emerged from the crack; everything remained frozen in place.

"Is there no way to break through the crack and get out?" The leader's expression changed constantly, but his eyes remained fixed on the crack, not daring to relax for a moment.

Twenty minutes later, there was still no progress at the scene.

"Captain, what should we do now?" a team member asked in a low voice.

"Continue to maintain close surveillance!" the team leader commanded in a deep voice. "As long as this crack doesn't disappear, we will hold out to the death, without letting our guard down for a moment!"

"receive!"

From a distance in the crowd, Chu Ge turned to Xu Wan beside him and asked in a deep voice, "Xu Wan, what do you think?"

Xu Wan remained silent for a moment, her brows furrowing tightly, before slowly speaking: "I can be 100% certain that the aura emanating from the crack is the aura of the Abyss Aberration."

She changed the subject, her eyes filled with doubt: "But... I feel like something's not right, but I can't quite put my finger on it."

"I have the same feeling." Chu Ge pondered for a moment and then stated his judgment. "Moreover, this rift has not fully opened to form a black hole, which is why the aberration is trapped inside and unable to manifest itself."

Another half hour passed in the blink of an eye, and nothing had changed at the scene. The onlookers gradually lost their patience.

"Ah~ I'm so sleepy, I'm going back to sleep now, I'll talk to you when there's any movement."

"Yeah, I thought I'd see something spectacular, but this is all? It wasted my time. Now I have to go back and watch the pure love masterpiece my friend recommended: 'Rondo of Purity'."

"That's right, I still need to play in the peak matches and try to reach 1200 points by the end of the season!"

The crowd gradually dispersed, leaving only a few night owls and members of the Monster Hunting Bureau who remained at their posts.

Although Xu Wan was getting a little bored while waiting, she didn't leave. She casually took out her phone and started scrolling. Not long after, her expression suddenly changed.

"Chu Ge, look at this!" She quickly handed over her phone.

Chu Ge took the phone and saw in the video on the screen that an identical void rift had appeared above a crossroads.

Xu Wan scrolled down, and similar videos kept popping up—forests, seas, amusement parks…the same eerie cracks appeared one after another all over the world.

The only difference is the size; the smaller ones are a few meters long, while the larger ones are tens of meters long.

"You mean... wouldn't this be considered a game invading reality?" Xu Wan looked up at Chu Ge.

"...I guess so." Chu Ge replied softly, his gaze still fixed on the crack in the distance. "Once the mutants are truly revealed, everything will become clear."

The two found a flat, open space, sat cross-legged, and began their cultivation, quietly waiting for the situation to change.

The staff at the hot spring resort also stayed up all night, delivering warm late-night snacks to the members of the Demon Hunting Bureau who were on duty outside and the guests who stayed behind.

The night was silent. As dawn broke and the sky gradually turned a pale white, the void rift remained completely still.

Meanwhile, the internet was already in an uproar over this bizarre global phenomenon.

"Did you all see that? The red ball of light that suddenly appeared yesterday, and then it turned into a void rift!"

"Don't even mention it! I went back to my hometown in the countryside yesterday, and in the middle of the night I was squatting in an open-air outhouse when a bright red light hit me right on the head. It was so blinding that I lost my balance and fell down. I still smell like that!"

"You're lucky! I was just about to take off successfully yesterday when that ball of light suddenly appeared in front of me, almost scaring me so much I shrank back inside. Now my house has been sealed off by the Demon Hunting Bureau, and I can't go back at all!"

Not long after, another piece of news quickly spread online—a player who had participated in The Fourth World revealed that the red orb of light and the void rift last night were exactly the same as the way the Abyss Aberration appeared in the game.

Some players with exceptional drawing skills even posted their own portraits of the Abyssal Aberrations they had seen in the Fourth World online, instantly sparking heated discussions across the internet.

"This is amazing! It's the arrival of Gadagomu! I'm so lucky to be born in such a great era. Who wouldn't want to have a forbidden love affair with an Abyss Aberration in a moment of passion?"

"Just asking, I heard the Abyssal Aberrations are humanoid, right? In short, there must be a way to get them, right?"

"Hehehe, when they come out, we'll catch them all, whip them, and make them work the land!"

"My God, what kind of talk is this? This world is beyond saving, just destroy it..."

Future Architecture, the company behind The Fourth World, immediately held a press conference, announcing that they were fully investigating the player feedback and would release the results as soon as they were available.

Following this, a large number of players reported that they were unable to log in to the game "Fourth World".

The official Future Architecture team quickly released an announcement to reassure players, citing system maintenance as the reason, and stated that the servers would be restarted after the maintenance was completed.

……

Donghai City, the headquarters of Future Architecture Group, and the development lab for the game "The Fourth World".

"Still haven't found the root cause of the login problem?" Ye Congyun's face was ashen as he looked at his assistant beside him, his tone full of anxiety.

The so-called system maintenance was just an excuse to appease the outside world. In fact, the Fourth World itself had a fatal problem, which caused the entire server to be unable to log in.

As the chief engineer of the development of "The Fourth World", the pressure he is under at this moment can be imagined.

"...No." The assistant shook his head helplessly, looking exhausted. "Not only can players not log in, but even our internal test accounts are completely unable to access the system. We can't find the root cause of the problem at all."

After listening to his assistant's words, Ye Congyun fell into a long silence. After a long while, he patted his shoulder and said in a hoarse voice, "...Try it again. Make sure you find the problem."

"clear."

Watching his assistant's departing figure, Ye Congyun's emotions were extremely complicated.

To be honest, The Fourth World was an unfinished and flawed product from the very beginning. Even he, the chief engineer, couldn't fully grasp the game's underlying logic before being ordered to be released by his superiors and recruit players for closed beta testing.

On the first day of the closed beta test, a large-scale data loss problem occurred in the backend.

After that, strange things happened frequently. Even though there were 100 beta testers online at the same time, one person's data could not be received or tracked.

According to normal procedures, the servers should have been shut down for full maintenance long ago in this situation, but the higher-ups have repeatedly put pressure on the game to run on its own without paying attention to data anomalies or player feedback.

Even now, he still can't understand the higher-ups' intentions in doing this.

It's really strange that a project that has been developed with huge investments is being left unattended.

Ye Congyun walked out of the research and development laboratory, came to the quiet corridor, took out his phone and dialed a number.

The call was quickly answered, and a sweet, soft girl's voice came through: "Hey? Daddy, what brings you to call me?"

Upon hearing her daughter's voice, Ye Congyun's tense expression finally relaxed, revealing a gentle smile.

His wife passed away early, and his daughter is his only weakness. Whenever he encounters troubles, only talking to his daughter can calm him down.

"Dad misses our Lingling."

"Hehe, I miss Dad so much too! Dad, have you had breakfast yet?"

"have eaten."

"That's good~ Hey—!"

Suddenly, a scream came from the other end of the phone.

"Lingling, what's wrong?!" Ye Congyun's expression changed drastically, and his heart jumped into his throat.

Outside the hot spring resort.

Ye Lingling stared at the void rift that had suddenly torn open and transformed into a massive black hole, and hurriedly said:

"Dad, I have to go now, there's a monster coming out of the crevice!"