Qin Yu walked alone into the absolute core control room at the lowest level of the President.
The heavy special steel hatch slowly locked shut behind him.
The control room was pitch black, without a single source of light.
Qin Yu stood before the central control console.
He took a deep breath.
The System's cold, mechanical voice exploded in his mind.
[Detection: Five fragments of the "Ocean Soul Crystal Mother" have been gathered.]
[World Bottom-Layer Anchor is being reforged...]
[Progress: 10%... 30%... 70%...]
Qin Yu stared intently at the glowing sphere in mid-air, which was growing brighter and brighter.
The surrounding space began to warp violently.
The metal walls of the control room groaned under immense strain.
Even Qin Yu's body felt an incredibly terrifying pulling force.
[Progress: 100%!]
[Reforging complete!]
Pop!
A faint, almost imperceptible sound of rupture.
The blinding light instantly receded.
A palm-sized, transparent, diamond-shaped crystal, within which flowed a galaxy-like luminescence, hovered silently before Qin Yu.
[Item Name: World Heart (Original: Ocean Soul Heart)]
[Item Rating: Beyond Comprehension (Unique)]
[Item Description: This is the sole core control hub of the world you inhabit. Master it, and you will gain all underlying logic permissions for this world.]
[Note: Upon contact, the System will be completely uninstalled, and World Camouflage will be fully lifted.]
[Make contact?]
Looking at the diamond-shaped crystal before him, Qin Yu did not hesitate.
He slowly reached out his hand.
Images from the past few months flashed through his mind—the struggles for survival on the open sea, the survivors who had died in the jaws of monsters.
"Let's see what this so-called Survival Game really is, this mess of a world."
Qin Yu grasped the [World Heart] firmly!
BOOM—!!
An indescribably vast Data Stream instantly flooded into Qin Yu's brain!
There was no pain.
Only endless images flashing frantically.
[Warning! Highest authority has been seized!]
[System self-destruct protocol initiated... Initiation failed!]
[Underlying protocols being forcibly overwritten!]
[Uninstalling "Wasteland Era" module...]
[Uninstalling "Regional Barrier" module...]
[Removing "World Camouflage"...]
Beep—
With one final, drawn-out electronic tone, the [Daily Lottery System] that had accompanied Qin Yu for months in his mind fell completely silent.
Vanished without a trace.
"Is that it?"
Qin Yu shook his slightly dizzy head.
Apart from the glowing stone now in his hand, nothing seemed to have changed.
Just as Qin Yu was about to turn and leave, the communicator in the control room suddenly screamed like mad!
"Husband!!"
Li Ruobing's voice pierced through the communicator, carrying unprecedented shock and terror.
"Come up here, quick!"
"The sky... the sky is gone!!"
Qin Yu's eyes sharpened.
He immediately activated the anti-gravity module on his trench coat.
With a bang, he burst through the control room hatch and shot straight up the elevator shaft toward the deck.
The moment he burst onto the deck.
An intensely cold and piercing wind instantly rushed toward him.
But Qin Yu paid no attention to the wind.
He froze completely in place.
His pupils contracted violently.
On the deck.
Yao Xue, Yao Qian, Li Ruobing, Qi Chun, Elena.
Everyone was awake.
They stood dazedly by the railing, heads tilted upward, staring at the sky.
Each face was etched with utter disbelief.
There was no sky anymore.
The once pitch-black night sky, the once twinkling stars.
Like a torn curtain, they peeled away in fragments.
Revealing the "truth" outside.
What a shocking, what a despairing sight!
They weren't on some vast ocean at all!
Directly above their heads.
Was an immense, boundless metal dome!
Covering the dome were densely packed, colossal pipelines as thick as mountains!
And in the gaps between those pipelines.
Hung countless faintly glowing "glass orbs."
Inside each glass orb.
Was an ocean, a continent, or a desert!
The apocalyptic sea they were in.
Was merely one of these countless "glass orbs"!
"What… what is this…"
Qi Chun collapsed onto the deck, his pointing finger trembling uncontrollably.
"Are we… are we insects trapped in a jar?"
"An experimental field."
Yao Xue's voice was as cold as ice, but her lips were bitten until they bled.
"That Executive Officer wasn't lying."
"This isn't some transmigration, nor is it the apocalypse descending."
"This is a confined, High-Dimensional Experimental Field."
Yao Qian covered her mouth, tears streaming uncontrollably.
"Then what about our Blue Star?"
"We can never go back, can we?"
Qin Yu clenched the [World Heart] in his hand tightly.
He finally understood.
Why there was a System, why there were monsters, why there were all sorts of bizarre rules.
Because these were just game parameters set by someone else!
That so-called Executive Officer was nothing more than an administrator guarding this "glass orb"!
"Rumble—"
At that moment.
A deafening mechanical roar suddenly echoed from the massive metal dome in the sky.
Immediately after.
An enormous red beam of light directly locked onto the sea area they were in!
[Warning: Administrator of Experimental Zone 09 detected as missing.]
[Warning: Detection of unauthorized seizure of foundational permissions in Experimental Zone 09.]
[Purge protocol initiated.]
[Star-Annihilator Purification Cannon, charging.]
[Estimated time to complete eradication of all carbon-based lifeforms in Experimental Zone 09: ten seconds.]
An emotionless, high-dimensional electronic voice, broadcast through speakers on the metal dome, echoed across the entire sea.
No negotiation.
No nonsense.
Upon discovering the experimental subjects were out of control, the other side chose complete eradication!
"Ten!"
The red beam in the sky grew brighter and brighter, its terrifying pressure forcing the surrounding seawater to sink dozens of meters!
"Nine!"
"Husband! What do we do!"
Li Ruobing grabbed Qin Yu's arm in despair.
In the face of such absolute power capable of destroying the entire world.
What S-Class Armor, what shipboard artillery, all became a fucking joke.
Even the [Netherworld: Death's Kiss] in Qin Yu's hand.
Could never withstand a star-annihilating Dimensional Reduction Strike.
"Eight!"
"Boss! The Valkyrie Corps requests one final charge!"
Elena drew her Light Blade, blocking Qin Yu's path.
"Charge my ass!"
Qin Yu shoved Elena aside.
He raised his head, glaring fixedly at the Death Beam in the sky that was drawing closer and closer.
The muscles at the corner of his mouth twitched violently.
Not from fear.
But from extreme rage!
"Seven!"
"You've been raising me like a bug for so long."
Qin Yu raised the [World Heart] high in his hand.
"And now that you think you can't control me anymore, you want to crush me underfoot?"
"Did you fucking ask for my opinion?!"
"Six!"
"Five!"
Qin Yu's eyes turned blood-red as he channeled all his Spiritual Energy into the diamond-shaped crystal in his hand!
"Since I've gained control of this world."
"Then this world is my territory!"
"Four!"
"Break for me!"
Qin Yu let out a roar like a wild beast.
The [World Heart] in his hand instantly erupted with an aurora ten thousand times more intense than before!
"Hum—!!"
A translucent World Shield visible to the naked eye.
Centered on the [President], spread frantically across the entire sea!
In just one second.
It completely enveloped the entire No. 09 "glass ball"!
"Three!"
"Two!"
"One!"
"Boom—!!"
The red beam of the Star-Annihilator Purification Cannon slammed viciously into the translucent World Shield!
The entire world shook violently.
Tsunamis surged into the sky, glaciers shattered.
But the Shield did not break!
[Cleansing procedure obstructed!]
[Detected that the target area has activated an Independent World Barrier!]
[Reassessing target threat level...]
Blocked!
Everyone on the deck, having narrowly escaped death, collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.
Qin Yu wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
The energy clash just now had nearly shattered his internal organs.
He sneered coldly, looking up at the massive mechanical dome in the sky.
"Wives, brothers."
Qin Yu tightened his grip on the [World Heart] in his hand, his eyes reaching the peak of madness.
"See those jars outside?"
Li Ruobing and Yao Xue looked up at the densely packed "glass balls."
"Since we can't return to Blue Star."
Qin Yu revealed a cruel smile.
"Then I'll take you and smash every single one of those jars in the sky to pieces!"
"I'm going to make those arrogant bastards know."
"They messed with the wrong bug!"
A brand new unknown, at this moment, completely unveiled its bloody curtain.
The Wasteland ends.
Interstellar Hunt, begins now!