Chapter 1 The Situation of the Four Final Teams

Let's not discuss the fate of this gradually escalating crisis within the game space. For now, let's rewind time a bit and observe the circumstances of the four final teams at midnight...

…………

As midnight approached, the twenty players from the Hell's Frontline, Trash Alliance, Warring States, and Order teams had all arrived in their respective login spaces, awaiting orders.

At 11:59:57 PM (real-world time), a system voice simultaneously echoed in their ears:

[The Peak Brawl S2 Finals are about to begin. Your data will be loaded in thirty seconds. Please do not leave the login space.]

After the prompt, there was twenty seconds (game time) of silence, and then...

[Ten-second countdown before loading, nine, eight, seven… two, one.]

The moment the countdown ended, the players transformed into white light and were teleported.

[Loading complete. You are currently participating in the Peak Brawl S2 Finals.]

[This mode provides a sc...]

However, the loading screen only displayed two lines of text before it was interrupted.

Then, there was nothing more...

…………

Nether Kingdom, Boundaryless Maze.

When the players regained their senses, they were already in the script world and had regained the ability to move.

"Oh? Five people..." Feng Bujue didn't show any surprise at the abnormality that occurred during the teleportation. He simply looked at the four teammates beside him and muttered, "It seems... due to the problems during loading, the spectator mechanism failed to run smoothly..."

"Brother Jue... what's the situation this time?" Xiao Tan could tell from Brother Jue's expression that the latter must know something.

"If the information I received is correct... then, at the moment we started teleporting, Link and Aid already began their invasion of the game space," Feng Bujue replied. "The malfunction during loading should be a side effect of their actions."

"Where did you get the information?" Ruoyu asked, looking at him. "And... why didn't you tell us this information beforehand?"

"There was no need to tell you in advance..." Feng Bujue spread his hands and said, "Anyway, it's not too late to tell you now." He paused. "As for the source of my information... many."

"Is it Twenty-Three?" Ruoyu immediately stated.

"Uh... how did you know?" Brother Jue was taken aback when he was exposed.

Ruoyu calmly replied, "The only organizations that could provide you with this kind of information are the [Z] Organization or [Origin]. The latter is currently led by Luote alone. If she had contacted you, she should have brought you the Kongtong Seal and the Nayuan Chesui Powder. But when you showed your character information before the match, you didn't have these two items in your inventory, so I can basically conclude that you haven't had contact with Luote herself or anyone she dispatched."

"But... there are many derivatives from the [Z] Organization who can bring me information," Feng Bujue countered. "How do you know it's definitely Twenty-Three?"

"Because you were vague when you answered," Ruoyu replied.

"Hmm..." Brother Jue was speechless. "That... there's a reason for that."

"I'm not interested in listening for now," Ruoyu replied coldly. "Let's talk about it after the game is over and we log off."

"Okay... okay..." Feng Bujue really didn't have any temper this time.

Looking at this scene, Xiao Tan, Xiao Ling, and Huajian all showed gloating expressions. It had to be said... the opportunities to witness Brother Jue losing his composure were few, but every time it gave people a strange sense of pleasure.

"Ahem!" Two seconds later, Feng Bujue cleared his throat and changed the topic. "Well... let's get down to business." He consciously raised his voice. "After months of effort, I have basically grasped the movements of all parties in the 'Twilight of the Gods' event, and have joined forces with Billy, Zhuanjiezun, Dianhe Wang, and the Illusory Demon Church, among other forces, to set up a grand scheme... It can be said that I already have a winning hand in this game in the main universe today. I don't care about the people in the other teams at all; what I care about is the impact of this event on the next version, which is... the 'future' of the main universe."

"If I'm not mistaken..." Xiao Ling interjected at this moment, "In this 'future'... the Four Pillar Gods will be replaced by some guys who are familiar with you, right?"

"That's my goal. Whether or not it can be achieved... depends on whether the plan progresses smoothly," Feng Bujue replied. "But in any case... the Four Pillar Gods are already a thing of the past, their era of dominance has come to an end..." At this point, his expression became solemn. "At this moment, we are at a critical time node that is enough to change the structure of the main universe, and everything we do next will have a profound impact on the future here."

"No way..." Huajian interjected at this time in a rather puzzled and doubtful tone, "Isn't the future of the main universe being regulated by the system?"

"Hmph... good question." Feng Bujue chuckled. "Before today, that was indeed the case, but not anymore..." He paused for half a second, then said unhurriedly, "'Twilight of the Gods' is an irreversible major process in the game's main program. As early as the finals of S1, I glimpsed relevant information through Zero's prediction program. In other words, up to this point, all major events that have occurred in the main universe are 'destined'."

After a second's pause, he changed the subject: "But... the world line after this event is uncertain. Because from this stage onwards, the influence of the 'player' group on the main universe... has reached a level that the system cannot fully control."

"Not really..." Xiao Tan said after hearing this. "Whether from the point of view of the number of people or combat strength, players and NPCs are not on the same level... Not to mention anything else, there are so many different planets in the main universe, and each planet has a large population, and there are as many individuals with extremely strong combat power as there are hairs on a cow. The system can control the world lines of these creatures, so the influence of us players shouldn't be anything, right?"

"Guiding the 'world line' has nothing to do with the combat strength of the guided, the key is its dimension," Feng Bujue replied. "Let me give you the simplest example... For example, you go to play a fighting game with Dragon Ball as the theme. Vegeta is stronger than you, right? But you can control him with just a controller, and he'll hit whoever you tell him to hit, he'll stand there and take a beating if you tell him to, and he'll die if you tell him to die."

"Hmm..." Xiao Tan pondered. "I see." He paused. "However, there's still one thing I don't understand... Although we are higher in dimension, after entering Thriller Paradise, we are equal to lowering ourselves by one dimension; under this premise, the system is still like half a god to us... Even if the overall strength of the players is relatively high now, are we really capable of surpassing the system's macro control?"

"Of course we can," Feng Bujue replied confidently. "In the data world of Thriller Paradise, the 'prediction program' is just math in the end... When event A occurs, program A makes a certain response, and then there is result A, which then triggers event B... Countless such calculations are superimposed to form a complete blueprint for the future." He raised his head. "But... we humans are not some 'program A', we are an 'uncertain factor', no matter how advanced the optical brain is, it cannot accurately predict the future intertwined with humans."

"Then..." At this time, Huajian asked again, "From the opening of the server until today, how has the system ensured that the world line has not gone off course for these seven months?"

"The system is just operating normally, there are no special measures," Feng Bujue replied. "I just said that 'from this stage onwards, the influence of players on the main universe has just barely surpassed the control of the system', for the first seven months... as Xiao Tan said, the overall strength of us players was still too trash, even if the thought dimension is different, it is still impossible to do anything to the 'God' of this world."

"So..." At this moment, Ruoyu suddenly cast a sharp look at Feng Bujue and threw out a sharp question, "... You are going to play the role of 'God' today?"

"Hehe... man proposes, God disposes," Feng Bujue smiled. "Even if we can't go against the heavens, it's possible to deceive them..."

Before he could finish speaking, his smugness had already leaked out of him along with his cheapness.

"Enough showing off..." Ruoyu still said expressionlessly, "Let's talk about the plan..."