“I’ll need a little more time here.” Although the commotion in the distance sounded like monsters attacking a city, Cyd, who had his hand on Brother Jue’s forehead, seemed quite calm. While transferring power, he casually said to the others.

“Tch…” Simon clicked his tongue and muttered, “What a pain…”

Even so, he started running toward the rift from which the roars originated.

On the other side, Vincent walked over to Gu Chen and put his arm around the latter’s shoulder, “Let’s get going too. The situation elsewhere might not be any better than here. If we’re late, there might be no one left alive.”

“Okay,” Gu Chen replied calmly.

It seemed… they weren’t worried about Simon’s safety at all.

And so, amid a series of “hehehe” laughs, Gu Chen teleported away with Vincent and Woody. Just as they disappeared, the monster beneath the ground rift… crawled out.

From head to spine to tail, the monster had reptilian features… a long, narrow neck, spiky spinal protrusions, and a massive tail more than half its body length, making it look like some kind of lizard. But apart from this "back line," its torso and limbs were more like those of a dog… of course, a dog that was wide and stout, over a hundred meters long, and capable of swallowing a dinosaur in one bite.

In addition to its massive size, fangs, and claws—common biological weapons—this monster also had nearly black, rock-like skin (extremely hard); its mouth, eyes, and skin texture glowed with the light of lava (extremely heat-resistant)…

From an ordinary person’s perspective, taking down this creature would require weapons of at least m.o.A.B (massive_ordnance_Air_Burst, also jokingly called the mother_of_All_Bombs) level. Sending fighter jets would likely result in a scene like the human forces scratching a monster in the *Ultraman* series. As for sending soldiers… that was even more of a fantasy, unless the soldiers had been exposed to gamma rays or were warriors from the M78 Nebula in disguise…

However, from Simon’s perspective, this battle wasn’t that big of a deal.

He ran toward the monster with brisk steps. When they were two hundred meters apart, the monster noticed him and immediately let out an extremely high-pitched, threatening roar.

Although the monster was many times larger than Simon, its state at the moment… was like that of a chihuahua seeing a lion running toward it.

“Awoo—” Before the roar was finished, the monster realized that Simon wasn’t an enemy who could be deterred by intimidation. Suddenly, it swung its massive tail behind it, arching it over its head, and aimed the tip of its tail at Simon, firing a beam of purple light.

“Yi energy pulse, huh…” Facing the beam thicker than a subway car, Simon looked at it coldly, raised his hand, and released a red energy ball from his fingertip, throwing it to meet the trajectory of the purple light.

When it left his hand, the energy ball was only the size of a basketball, but the farther it flew, the larger it became. Before long, its diameter exceeded five meters…

At the instant of contact with the Yi energy pulse, Simon’s attack easily devoured the other's purple energy and rolled over it.

Even though the monster was frightened and quickly "lowered its head and retracted its tail," the tip of its tail was still "grazed" by the passing energy ball. Fiery magma flowed from the monster’s severed tail like blood, and where it fell, the ground dissolved and the heat rose sharply.

Simon's energy ball continued to fly toward the sky, disappearing beyond the clouds.

"Senior," Cyd, who was watching this scene, showed a helpless expression and reminded him, "Um… spacetime is distorted right now, and surface connections have appeared in various regions of the universe… the distances are very short. If you just throw a 'supernova' like that, what if there’s a planet in its path…"

"Stop talking nonsense. The universal consciousness is half-paralyzed anyway," Simon interrupted him before he could finish. "If you keep nagging, I'll throw one at you too."

Hearing this, Cyd could only pout and say nothing more.

Seconds later, Simon finally ran up to the monster at a leisurely pace. Without hesitation, he leaped off the ground and flew straight toward the monster’s mouth, which was filled with fire.

Seeing this, the monster roared again and vigorously raised its massive claws to swat at Simon… despite its enormous size, the monster was not slow at all. The power of its claws was unmatched; the wind pressure generated by the claw strike alone could topple forests and break tides.

Bang—

At the instant the claw strike arrived, Simon straightened his left arm and met it with a punch… After the loud noise, the entire arm that the monster had used to attack shattered.

That wasn't the end of it. Simon's upward momentum after destroying the giant claw was not hindered or deviated in the slightest. A second later, he was still rising in front of the monster’s head.

Knowing that it had reached a moment of life or death, the giant monster immediately spewed out a mouthful of magma from its throat, accompanied by a torrent of flames, trying to force Simon back with this high-temperature attack.

But Simon scoffed at this and swept out a punch against the dual stream of magma and flames.

Wild and domineering magical power, dividing the sky and severing the universe, directly caused the lava to flow backward and the extreme flames to extinguish… Before Simon’s fist even touched it, the force of the punch had already blown up the monster’s head.

After one strike, the part of the monster above its chest was turned into rock fragments of varying sizes. These fragments, stained with magma, were ignited in mid-air, emitting light… blooming and falling like swirling fireworks.

This gorgeous moment seemed to make time pause. After a period of stagnation like slow motion… the monster’s remaining body crashed down and fell back into the ground rift, stirring up another earthquake-like tremor.

"You don't seem surprised at all." At the same time, Cyd, who was "transferring power" to Feng Bujue, spoke to Brother Jue, "Generally speaking, humans would be a little surprised or excited to see this kind of scene, right?"

“What’s there to be excited about? It’s just like Superman in his prime fighting Warrior (here, “Warrior” refers to the final main boss of *Borderlands 2* - "warrior," an ancient creature on Pandora); the power difference is too great, so there's nothing to see." Feng Bujue replied, "But… since I’ve seen it, let me ask… compared to the combat power displayed by your senior Simon right now, how much of his power would I have after receiving your power?"

“Hmm…” Cyd thought for a moment, “If his punch is a ten in terms of 'performance,' you should be able to reach about three after receiving the Holy and Demonic powers.”

“Oh…” Feng Bujue responded, “So, basically, I'll be unstoppable?”

"Don't get me wrong," Cyd replied, "You said it yourself, you want me to assess according to 'performance'…" He paused for half a second and explained, "He's a 'ten' because he can only show 'ten' against this opponent, but in reality, the power of his full-strength punch might be 'one hundred' or even 'one thousand'; you're a 'three' because… you only have three."

"So… can't you give me more power?" Feng Bujue immediately asked.

"The power I've given you already far exceeds what a normal human can withstand. If it weren't for the dimensional overlap making your physical fitness close to that of a game character, you wouldn't even be able to handle this 'three'," Cyd replied.

“Tch…” Finding that he couldn’t squeeze any additional benefits from the other party, Feng Bujue clicked his tongue and then said, “So, how strong am I at my current level?”

“In terms of physical skills and energy intensity alone… you’re a little weaker than the form you took in the game world when you borrowed Chuck Norris’s power,” Cyd replied.

“What about skills? Items and equipment?” Feng Bujue asked again.

"Items and equipment are naturally nonexistent. As for skills… only the things you 'mastered' yourself can be used," Cyd said while thinking, "Hmm… and there are many things you could do in the data world that you can't do now… or it will be difficult to do them. But where exactly that limit is, you have to test it yourself… After all, this is the first time I've encountered a dimensional intrusion. What I’m telling you now is all I can 'observe' from you. I can't help you with what I can't observe."

As he said this, Cyd's hand slowly lifted up and left Brother Jue's forehead.

"Okay, I've given you enough power. I have to go too." As he spoke, Cyd turned his head and shouted to Simon, who was walking away, "Senior! Wait for me!"

"Hey, you haven't told me where to find Destiny yet," Feng Bujue quickly said.

“Just pick a direction and walk.” When Cyd said this, he turned back to look at Brother Jue, but his steps away from Brother Jue did not stop… He walked backward toward Simon while saying, “Now, the real world and the game world are intertwined like countless puzzle pieces. Any door or corner could be a spacetime rift. Without directional coordinates, no one can be sure where they will arrive after passing through the rift… but there is a special connection between you and 'Destiny'. Every time you traverse an area, you will shorten the distance between you and 'Destiny'… I’m not saying anymore, I really have to go.” As he said this, he hurriedly turned around and trotted after Simon’s back, "Senior! Wait for me! I just sent out a lot of power, it's not safe to act alone!"

Watching his receding back, Feng Bujue didn't ask anything more, because before Cyd had finished speaking, Feng Bujue had already tried to activate "Data Vision," and… succeeded.

At this moment, in his shimmering eyes, he saw a world woven from 'data' and 'reality,' two elements of different natures; Brother Jue realized only now that 'reality' could also be regarded as a kind of 'code,' but its rules and the code that made up the game world were completely different.

Through observation and thought on this bizarre and chaotic semi-data world, Feng Bujue quickly confirmed some of the mutual translation rules between the two codes; two minutes later, he locked onto a path suspected of leading to other spacetime and ran along this road to a ruin.

After solving an unknown humanoid creature with spider sacs on its back that rushed out of the corner of a wall with his bare hands, Feng Bujue successfully found a "spacetime rift."

It was a square cellar entrance slightly above the ground. In the dim light, it looked more like a black metal lump, but when viewed through Data Vision, it was dazzlingly bright.

Feng Bujue forcibly pried open this metal cover, which could not be opened normally due to corrosion. The cover looked like a cave underneath, so dark that no light could penetrate it, but Brother Jue jumped down without hesitation.

Then, he felt a sense of "weightlessness," and he couldn't see anything in front of him; this was a physical sensation unique to "teleportation" that players of Thriller Paradise were very familiar with…

He didn't know how long it took, but when Feng Bujue came to his senses, he was standing in a mountain forest. The air here was much more humid than the previous environment, and the light that penetrated through the forest canopy indicated that the space was in the daytime.

Feng Bujue didn't want to delay in any place. As soon as he stood still, he silently activated Data Vision, preparing to look for the next spacetime rift.

Unexpectedly, just as he turned his head to scan, two figures suddenly rushed into his line of sight at an extremely fast speed.