Chapter 1 A Sudden Message

The sudden news left Hao Ren feeling overwhelmed. At this crucial moment, what he feared most was the possibility of the Chang Zi (Long Son), the world-server, failing to hold on. He looked up at the large ganglion in the cave. The massive biological structure was still emitting a faint red glow and a dull throbbing sound, but the throbbing seemed to be mixed with some kind of noise—the painful cry of a huge, ancient creature being roasted by a star.

After a moment of stunned silence, Hao Ren urgently said to Nolan, "Make it hold on!"

"Make who?" Nolan didn't understand for a moment.

"Doesn't matter who. You can hear its voice, so it should be able to hear you. Find a way to get your thoughts across—hold on, no matter what! We're about to find the organ storing the memories. Just hold on for a few more hours!"

Hao Ren didn't know if Nolan could understand these abstract and chaotic things, but a firm voice came from the communicator: "Although I don't quite understand... I'll try my best!"

Izhaks heard the commotion and came over to ask, "What happened?"

"The Chang Zi might not be able to hold on," Hao Ren said briefly. "It's planning to end this nightmare."

"So that means..."

"The souls of billions of Zhuomuren (Zhuomu people) will die when they wake up from the dream—now I can only have Nolan try to cheer up the Chang Zi, but I don't know if it can hold on for a while because of that. In fact, I'm not even sure if the Chang Zi can really hear Nolan's voice... I still don't understand what kind of individual Nolan is, but I can only try anything. By the way, haven't you found the location of the brain core yet?"

It was Lily who answered, "No, the nerve signals are very chaotic. The closer we get to the nerve-rich areas, the more chaotic it becomes. The terminal says this is because the Chang Zi's body structure has mutated, probably in order to be transformed into a form suitable for becoming a server. The connection between its brain core and the nerve nodes is different."

Hao Ren looked up at the huge organ in the center of the cave. The strange mass of flesh intertwined with plant vines was visibly withering. The dark red light between the tissues and organs was becoming weaker and weaker, and the throbbing in the cave became slow and powerless. Although the sea of fire on the surface had not yet reached here, its vitality had begun to drain away. The sound Nolan heard in the virtual world was confirmed in reality: the Chang Zi's will was about to give up resisting. It had persisted for more than two thousand years under the scorching sun, trying to protect the human souls in its body as much as possible, but now it realized that all this was coming to an end. Before the greater collapse came, it hoped to let the Zhuomuren die without pain.

Perhaps it didn't even realize that a group of people were trying to save its brain core—its sensory organs had been burned by the sun, and the underground part was completely used to maintain the operation of the virtual world, so it had no spare energy to perceive Hao Ren and the others' actions.

"Nolan's communication may have failed," Izhaks' eyebrows were twisted into a knot. "I can feel this ancient creature killing itself."

Hao Ren silently ran to the large ganglion, pressed his hand directly on a bare, gray-white tissue, and tried to stimulate his ability to connect with the will of other Guardians. He kept repeating a call in his mind: "Can you hear me? We are trying to find a way in the real world. There is a spaceship parked above you, and we have the ability to transfer your brain core away—as long as you can stay awake until we start cutting. It's not time to give up yet..."

The call continued several times, but there was no response. The Chang Zi was still weakening at a visible rate, and Nolan's panicked and desperate voice rang in the communicator: "It's getting dark... the stars are disappearing, and people on the street are suddenly falling asleep one by one... with strange smiles on their faces..."

At this moment, the Petrified Tortoise, hovering above Zhuomu, was slowly climbing higher, as the data terminal wanted to scan the planet more comprehensively from a different angle. Just as it was raising the ship into the sky, a terrifying scene suddenly came from the external monitor.

The sunlit side of Zhuomu was rapidly turning into a sea of fire under the heat of the sun. Huge torrents of lava raged across the planet's surface, and large areas of the Earth's crust rose under the force of gravity. Suddenly, everything seemed to reach a critical point, and an unprecedentedly huge chasm appeared on the planet's surface. The width of this chasm could almost accommodate the entire Himalayan mountain range, and it quickly spread along the trajectory of sunlight.

The high temperature made the rock layers fragile, and this became a fatal breaking point.

Tens of millions of rock fragments flew towards the sun like bursting shrapnel. Almost one-third of Zhuomu's surface was peeled off in an instant, and the huge chasm turned into an ugly and terrifying scar, its width almost able to accommodate a moon.

May and the others on the bridge exclaimed, and the data terminal shrieked in the communication channel: "Partner! The sunlight has reached its peak!"

When the deafening roar that could almost turn ordinary people into powder came from overhead, Hao Ren suddenly calmed down, and at the same time, some vague ideas that even he couldn't figure out emerged in his mind. He asked Nolan a strange question, "You didn't fall asleep?"

Nolan's virtual world was ushering in its final dream. The entire world was slowly entering darkness, and all humans would die peacefully in sweet dreams. At this time, Nolan was probably the only human in the world who was still awake. After hearing Hao Ren's question, she instinctively paused, and then finally realized that something was wrong: "I... I'm still awake. I don't know why, but I seem to be fine."

Hao Ren temporarily hung up the communication and quickly ran to the black device he had checked before, which recorded information about building the virtual world and transforming the Chang Zi. Fortunately, this shelter was really strong and was protected by the Chang Zi's huge body, so the equipment here was still running.

After opening the search function, Hao Ren didn't hesitate to enter the keyword "Nolan."

Sure enough, corresponding information popped up, and the content above made Hao Ren extremely astonished: "This is..."

Vivian and Lily rushed over after hearing the news. They were also stunned after seeing the information. Hao Ren slowly took a breath: "No wonder. I knew there were so many unusual things about her. Her identity must be unusual, but I didn't expect..."

Lily murmured and took over the second half of the sentence: "She's the only NPC in the world."

"It's not accurate to say NPC. She's the other part of the virtual world corresponding to the Chang Zi," Hao Ren said, while quickly turning over plans in his mind. At the same time, he sent all the findings here to the Imperial Admiral, "Terminal, I need some technical support here."

"Technical support? How much is needed?"

"... I mean real technical support," Hao Ren gritted his back teeth. "Tell me, how can this information be used?"

The terminal then realized that it had misunderstood and quickly checked the data that had just been uploaded. Before it had time to be surprised by Nolan's true identity, it had already thought of a method: "According to what it says on the data, Nolan is the consciousness representative of the mechanical part of this 'server'?"

"It's not accurate to say consciousness representative. She doesn't know this. She's just running as a monitoring program for this virtual system. Her own will has nothing to do with this task. Her job is just to live in the virtual world, so that the mechanical equipment outside can judge the stability of the system," Hao Ren explained. "Now she can't affect this system anymore. In fact, she shouldn't have had this ability from the beginning... after all, she's just a detection code."

"That's not important. What's important is that she has a position in the system registry. There is a line inside her that is directly connected to the consciousness of the Chang Zi. Even if she doesn't know about this line, this connection can be used," the terminal said its thoughts. "The ship can establish a translation program. You talk to Nolan, the ship detects the connection rules between Nolan and the system, and then uses her as a springboard—to directly connect your mind to the Chang Zi's thoughts. That way, you can not only keep the Chang Zi awake, but you can even ask about the location of the brain core. The next thing will be very simple."

Hao Ren didn't hesitate: "Okay, worth a try."

"Are you sure? The Chang Zi's mental power is overwhelming. It's possible that you'll turn into an idiot the moment you hear its whisper."

Hao Ren smiled: "But the one here is a good kid, isn't she? Stop talking nonsense and tell me how to do it."