His eyes flickered as he tapped the next icon on his Cheat Interface.
As it turned out, those World Fragments tearing into his body hadn't just brought agony—they had acted as a bridge. During the chaotic fusion process, a strange, fated connection had formed, granting him a utility skill that allowed him to pull a piece of his past into this new, blocky reality. It was a Summoning Mechanic, a way to bring the services he relied on before, back home right to his front door.
[Summon Merchant — LV1]
A strange fate has bound you to the shards of reality. During the agonizing fusion process, you gained the rare ability to manifest commerce across the void.
Market Manifestation: Consume 10,000 Energy Points to designate a 50x50 area and summon a Merchant from your recorded history. Once summoned, they will remain in that location indefinitely until you manually dismiss them.
Dimensional Trade: Merchants can sell any item from their home world. However, unique rule-breaking items or supernatural abilities may require additional Energy or World Power to remain compatible with your current reality.
Universal Currency: You can purchase items using the Merchant's local currency, resources converted through their world's logic, or your own World Power. (Note: Whether the exchange rate is worth it is entirely up to your discretion.)
Mercenary Quests: Merchants may issue tasks that reward you with unique items and abilities from their home realm. Warning: Maintaining the effects of these rewards may incur a continuous Energy or World Power drain.
Recording Fee: Adding a new Merchant to your database will consume varying amounts of World Power based on their status and value.
Registered Merchants:
Jen (7 Days to Die)
Li Ke's eyes lingered on the profile picture for the Registered Merchant. There was no mistaking it—it was Trader Jen, the same woman he had intimately bonded with countless times back in the wasteland. The second he saw her face, the skill's potential clicked into place.
"Great. It's exactly what it looks like—a massive money sink. Only problem is, I'm flat broke."
He stared at his Energy Point counter, which sat at a depressing zero. If he had the points, he'd already be long gone. He realized that if this blocky world was truly empty of other people to trade with or harvest from, he was going to be in a serious bind.
Pushing down the anxiety of being stranded with zero resources, Li Ke turned his attention to the final, most mysterious skill on his list.
[World Power User — LV1]
Through a stroke of impossible luck, you have obtained a power far beyond that of a mere mortal. You endured the agony of the collapse, and in return, a shattered world chose you to lead its restoration, allowing you to retain the strength and knowledge you siphoned from its dying core.
Divine Limitation: Though you wield this supreme power, its scale is so vast that you cannot yet fully grasp or control it.
Dimensional Utility: Currently, you can only manifest World Power in specific locations. You can use it to sense nearby concentrations of condensed World Power or consume it to "read" local information about your current environment.
Rule Overwrite: You possess the potential to manifest the Physical Laws of one world within another. However, your current capacity is too low to activate this freely.
Temporal Anchor: You can exchange Energy Points for World Power. Furthermore, when returning to a previously visited world, you can consume World Power to sync your arrival with the exact moment you left. To the inhabitants of that world, it will be as if you never disappeared, even if you've spent centuries wandering the stars.
Keep wielding the power of worlds; only through its use will you uncover the ultimate answer at the end of your journey.
Recorded Worlds:
7 Days to Die
Active Rules: None
Curious, Li Ke tried tapping on the recorded entry for 7 Days to Die. Instantly, a system prompt flickered to life in front of him.
[System Alert]
Would you like to apply the Rules of the '7 Days to Die' World?
Note: Activation will consume varying amounts of World Power based on your actions and the current environment.
Li Ke glanced at his World Power counter. Like his Energy Points, it sat at a flat, mocking zero. He gave a silent, weary nod.
"Right. Not like I have the clearance for that anyway."
It wasn't just the World Power; he didn't even have a lead on how to start grinding Energy Points in this blocky void.
"If only I'd made it to the World of Arad," he sighed. "Even if I couldn't squeeze another ten thousand points out of Seria, it wouldn't have been this dry. Anything would be better than nothing."
Clinging to a final shred of hope, he tried to force open his old 7 Days to Die Inventory Menu.
Nothing. Not even a flicker.
He wasn't exactly crushed; he'd braced himself for this. The moment he'd woken up, he noticed his Quick-Access Action Bar was gone. The only reason he still had a machine gun in his hands was that he'd physically tucked one into his backpack before the world ended.
If Rias hadn't left him his backpack before she vanished, Li Ke would be starving by now.
"This is pathetic," he muttered, shoving the last piece of bread into his mouth. "I just hope the locals around here can actually help me generate some Energy Points."
He stood up and dusted off his pants. The plan was simple: climb the mountain and look for a road or a Village. If he found any of those long-nosed villagers... well, he didn't want to be that guy, but if they were the only females in this world and his only source of Energy... he might just have to grit his teeth and do what had to be done. As far as he was concerned, since he was stuck in this "Temporary Residency," getting enough juice to leave this world was his top priority.
He looked at the mountain and started the climb.
On his way up, he passed dozens of pigs and sheep, and the scenery was honestly beautiful. It actually put him in a pretty good mood—at least until he was halfway up and his knees started screaming.
Every single block in this world was a meter high. For Li Ke, that meant he either had to climb or jump for every single step. He chose to jump, and now his legs were burning with explosive pain.
Collapsing onto a dirt "staircase," Li Ke watched a bunch of carefree pigs effortlessly hopping up the one-meter ledges. He couldn't help but shake his head in envy.
"Man, losing that ten-fold strength and regeneration really sucks..."
He sighed and took in the view. He had to admit, the landscape was stunning. From up here, the pixelated world looked like a sprawling masterpiece.
The problem was, there were no signs of civilization.
No villages, no ruins—nothing. Not even a single Voxel-person out there waving a hoe.
"Talk about a dead end," he joked, mocking his own situation. He forced himself back up and kept climbing, desperate to find even a hint of a path—and praying he wouldn't actually have to resort to a long-nosed villager to get his Energy back.
Just as Li Ke was about to push through the fatigue and continue his climb, two sharp, panicked screams suddenly tore through the sky. Startled, he snapped his head up, squinting against the glare of the blocky sun. High above, two streaks of brilliant light were cutting through the atmosphere like jagged glass. Within one of those glowing trails, he could just make out two small, delicate figures struggling desperately against the descent, their limbs flailing against the thinning air. They were moving at a terrifying speed. Almost the instant Li Ke spotted them, they blurred past his position, hurtling toward the distant mountain peaks like falling stars destined for a violent end.
"Is this my lucky break?!"
The thought electrified him, jolting through his nervous system like a live wire. Suddenly, his aching knees and screaming joints didn't matter. Li Ke ignited his Blood Energy Arts, feeling the familiar, hot rush of power surge through his veins. His pulse hammered against his ribs as his physical speed tripled instantly. He tore across the blocky terrain, no longer jumping like a clumsy interloper, but moving with the predatory grace of a man who saw a lifeline. Every meter-high ledge was now just a minor hurdle to be vaulted over in a single, explosive bound.
The wind whistled past his ears, carrying the faint scent of ozone from the falling streaks above. As he raced, the "shooting stars" began to accelerate, their glow intensifying before they vanished behind a jagged ridge. A cold, sinking dread began to settle in his gut, warring with his desperate greed. Li Ke found himself offering up two very different, conflicting prayers to whatever gods still listened to this pixelated void.
The first was a plea for mercy, born of a lingering shred of humanity:
"Please, let them survive that fall! Don't let my first lead end in a red smear on the grass."
The second was a grim, desperate calculation, the cold logic of a man who had already seen worlds die:
"And if they don't... please tell me I can still get Energy from a corpse! My survival is non-negotiable, and I can't afford to be picky about how I get my ticket out of here."