The Rust Sea, having consumed the Scavenger mothership and Blade of Judgment remnants, grew restless. A deeper hunger echoed through Li Tianming's consciousness—the ancient domain now craved more sustenance after tasting celestial energy.
A sharp pain shot through the brand on Lia's neck. She staggered, face pale. "Highest-level detection protocol! Three magnitudes deeper than standard scans!"
Simultaneously, the very light above the Rust Sea twisted.
Crimson skies swirled into unnatural spirals. Geometric patterns emerged on nanite waves like some cosmic eye focusing. Space groaned under formatting pressure.
"It's here." Li Tianming looked up calmly. "Not agents. This is the System's direct Gaze."
No ships or soldiers appeared. Only a manifestation of pure rule.
A white fissure tore open silently above. Where it passed, nanite activity ceased instantly. Waves solidified into metallic statues. Even newly awakened Divine Skeletons slowed to sluggish motions.
This wasn't attack. This was erasure.
[Error Code: Rust-Sea-Ω. Purification Protocol initiated.]
A neutral voice resonated in all conscious minds.
Li Tianming felt intangible forces probing his divine spark, attempting to classify him for deletion.
He snorted. The skeleton beneath him flared with rust-colored light, resisting the white fissure. Silenced sea areas began writhing again, fighting the pressure.
"It's overwriting our rules with its own!" Lia understood immediately.
"Then let it see," Li Tianming's eyes swirled with cosmic rust, "whose laws run deeper!"
The sea erupted. Three colossal skeletons rose—a stellar serpent, a continent-bearing turtle, and a broken humanoid wielding a corroded greatsword.
They channeled eons of accumulated corrosion through Li Tianming, forming a crimson torrent that slammed against the white scar of absolute order.
This wasn't energy clash. This was conceptual war.
Where crimson passed, silence broke. The white scar tried purifying rust while rust assimilated order, staining purity with decay.
Space fractured at their boundary.
[Authority conflict. Ancient Protocol detected... Recalculating threat...]
The System's voice hesitated for the first time.
Seizing the moment, Li Tianming's consciousness rode the torrent backward, striking at the perception behind the fissure.
He imprinted an image into the System's awareness:
Infinite rust-sea. Mountain-range skeletons. A figure turning, flaming eyes meeting the System's core.
"I am the flaw."
"I am the variable."
"I await you."
The white fissure flickered violently. The neutral voice vanished.
Then it was gone.
The Rust Sea churned normally again. But the newly awakened skeletons and lingering energy waves mixed with white fragments proved the confrontation's reality.
Li Tianming breathed heavily, sweat on his brow. Opposing the System directly, even with the sea's support, drained him.
Lia supported him, eyes wide. "You declared war?"
"No," he wiped his forehead coldly. "I just notified it..."
"Hunter and prey are changing roles."
He gazed into the void where the System waited.
"It remembers my scent now. Next time won't be just a glance."
He looked at the dormant skeletons around them.
"Before then, we must grow tenfold stronger."