I Am Extraordinary Alone

They just exchanged a few simple words, and soon 11 minutes had passed. At this point, the sky above them turned dark red.

At first, the red sky seemed like a kind of celestial light. Then, Lin Yan noticed it began to take shape, becoming solid with edges and angles. As the sky solidified, the night sky above them seemed to transform into a huge dark red gem.

Lin Yan was mesmerized, and Mike said, "It's the reboot effect. The power supply is insufficient, and the system is starting to shut down. This world is about to reboot."

"Reboot?" Lin Yan asked.

"Yes, when we enter next time, everything will loop again. What happened before will occur once more. Unfortunately, this world won't be put to use; it's just a fragmentary copy kept for my own reasons, destined never to develop," Mike said.

"You should design a state machine to save the world's progress. Maybe each world could be useful," Lin Yan said.

"Our research hasn't reached that point, saving the world's progress and continually rebooting from a certain node—it's not possible for now. And to be honest, Ms. Lin Yan, our resources are depleted. The generator we rely on is wind-powered, and we can't maintain such facilities. We can't use hydroelectric, geothermal, or coal power stations, and nuclear power stations have long been destroyed by His army, turning those places into radioactive wastelands. Given the current energy supply, maintaining the progress of a world consumes a lot of resources," Mike said.

Lin Yan was somewhat surprised, saying, "I didn't know things had gotten this bad... I thought they were just killing people all over the place..."

"No, we are not facing a bunch of monsters, Ms. Lin Yan. We are facing an army. They are systematically destroying farmland, minerals, power facilities, and even destroying art galleries, libraries, museums, etc. He is uprooting human civilization," Mike lamented.

Lin Yan was stunned. Until now, she finally understood what Divine Power Tianyang meant by "New World."

Indeed, it is a new world... built on the ruins of the old world... erasing all traces of human existence?

The red crystals in the sky gradually spread downward, and the crowd on the streets noticed the anomaly, all taking out their phones to capture the sky; some people panicked and shouted as they fled.

"We should leave, Ms. Lin Yan, unless you want to be crushed by the reboot effect like the residents here," Mike said.

As he spoke, he waved his hand, and a blue portal appeared in front of them.

Seeing Mike perform the same hand gesture to summon the portal as her own, so skillful and natural as though he, too, symbiotically bonded with the White King, made Lin Yan quite displeased.

"I thought this reboot would be quicker?" Lin Yan said.

"It's not our design," Mike said.

The two walked out of the portal, returning to the stadium filled with the half-body of the White King. Inside the blue portal, the fictional federal streets were in chaos; people frantically shouted, some tried to call the police, and others hid inside buildings.

With a thunderous boom, the world inside the portal fell entirely into red, and the portal promptly closed.

At this moment, on the computer screen, lines of code sped by, and the arena suddenly darkened.

Power went out.

"You've seen it, Ms. Lin Yan. This is what we're doing; this is our result. If we can find a way with your help to reduce the energy consumption of maintaining the fictional world and let it exist for a long time, we can leave this place and start over," Mike said.

"The idea is tempting, but from a technical perspective, your system still has many issues. The reboot effect will destroy the entire fictional world, yet you can't do node caching. If a special situation occurs, everything must restart. It's clearly not worth it," Lin Yan said.

Mike also understood the limitations of this system and nodded, agreeing with Lin Yan's concerns.

"Since you've shown me yours, I should let you see mine," Lin Yan said.

As she spoke, she made a casual swipe, opening another blue portal. This portal emitted a strong light in the darkness, illuminating most of the area in front of the stadium.

A trace of surprise appeared on Mike's face as he murmured, "This is... symbiosis..."

Behind that portal was the world Lin Yan had constructed with the White King's dream during this period, also the source of all the foundation's supplies. The White King was asleep in her heart. In theory, as long as Lin Yan didn't die and the White King didn't awaken, this world would exist forever.

The two stepped through the portal, entering a completely different world.

This place was a replica of Yinguo's prosperous period, entirely modeled after Abundance City.

The enormous cauldron-like structure of Abundance City was reconstructed accurately in this dream city. Lin Yan led Mike wandering on the streets from the lower levels up to near the top of Lingxiao Palace.

Mike had lost track of how long they stayed here; he only knew that they rode a vehicle all the way up, strolling in each structure level's urban circle, observing the residents' daily lives, feasting at snack stalls, and shopping in malls.

He was certain at least 24 hours had passed, but the sky never darkened. After wandering for a long time, Mike's impression of this place shifted from being moved to fear.

Because the scene on the street never changed; the men and women at the noodle stall were always eating noodles, cars were circulating back and forth on one street, and in roadside schools, students recited the same text repeatedly.

This world is looping in a certain timeframe.

"This place is astonishing... but if it could naturally develop like the United Federation," Mike remarked.

Lin Yan shook her head. "The White King cannot sleep forever. We only use this place as a resource reserve world, so everything here loops, just like a single-player game."

"Maybe our results could be combined. You can save the world with the power of the White King, and my system can let the world develop and conveniently design various variables..." Mike became somewhat excited.

"That's why I came to find you, Mike. I have a plan I just thought of. Your system can design one world after another, and I can let these worlds proceed in the White King's dream without consuming so much power. We can reboot the worlds one after another until one world finds a way to kill Him!" Lin Yan said.

Mike paused for a moment, then lowered his head in thought before saying, "You still haven't changed your mind, huh? But maybe you're right. We can trial and error in rounds, letting people in the fictional world help us experiment..."

Lin Yan nodded and said, "Exactly! I call this plan 'Reboot World.' This is the key we've been searching for!"