Chapter 31: A Glitch in the Universe
Location: The Cyber-Sector – The Iron Star
The Void Piercer dropped out of Warp directly in front of the Dyson Sphere.
It was a megastructure of unimaginable scale—a solid shell of black metal completely enclosing a star. Billions of defensive cannons swiveled to face the intruder.
"PROBABILITY OF SURVIVAL: 0%," The Machine King's voice boomed across the entire star system. "I HAVE SIMULATED THIS BATTLE A BILLION TIMES. YOU DIE IN EVERY SCENARIO, SOVEREIGN."
Jiang Chen stood on the bridge of his ship. He wasn't wearing his armor. He was wearing casual clothes, holding a cup of coffee.
"Simulations," Jiang Chen sighed, taking a sip. "That's the problem with machines. They assume the rules of the universe are constant."
He turned to Feng Xi. "Open the airlock."
"But Husband!" Feng Xi pointed at the screen. "There are ten trillion drones out there! It's a wall of lasers!"
"Just open it."
Jiang Chen stepped out into the vacuum of space.
The Machine King fired.
"FIRE SOLUTION: OMEGA SALVO."
The entire surface of the Dyson Sphere lit up. A wave of plasma energy—enough to vaporize a solar system—rushed toward the lone human figure.
Jiang Chen didn't dodge. He didn't block.
He simply raised his right hand. His Grandmist Core didn't spin; it pulsed with a frequency that didn't exist in this dimension.
"Grandmist Art: Logic Error."
He snapped his fingers.
CLICK.
The universe stuttered.
The wave of plasma froze in mid-space. Then, it turned into butterflies.
Trillions of glowing, blue energy butterflies scattered into the void.
"ERROR," The Machine King screeched. "PHYSICS VIOLATION DETECTED. ENERGY CONSERVATION LAW... BROKEN. DOES NOT COMPUTE. DOES NOT COMPUTE."
"I am the Sovereign," Jiang Chen flew forward, passing through the cloud of butterflies. "I write the laws. You just follow them."
He landed on the surface of the Dyson Sphere. He placed his hand on the black metal.
"System Shutdown."
He poured Chaos energy into the grid.
Computers rely on order. 0 and 1. Yes and No.
Chaos is neither. Chaos is Everything.
The Machine King's processors tried to calculate the value of Chaos.
"CALCULATING... CALCULATING... INFINITY... ERROR... OVERHEAT..."
BOOM.
The lights on the Dyson Sphere died. The trillions of drones simply powered down, drifting aimlessly in space.
The Machine King—a god of data—was blue-screened in less than ten seconds.
Jiang Chen phased through the outer shell and entered the Core Room.
The massive brain in the tank was boiling. The blue liquid had turned black.
Floating in front of the dead tank was the final piece.
[Item Acquired: Galactic Key (Fragment 3/3)]
[Description: The Logic Chip of the Pre-Creation Era.]
Jiang Chen grabbed the blue microchip.
"Too easy," he muttered. "He relied so much on the Void that he forgot how to fight a Human."
The Fusion
Jiang Chen stood in the silent heart of the machine world.
He opened his inventory.
He took out the Red Pyramid (from the Crimson Emperor).
He took out the Green Orb (from the Hive Mother).
He held the Blue Chip (from the Machine King).
The three artifacts began to hum. They sensed each other. They magnetized, pulling toward a central point.
"Combine," Jiang Chen commanded.
He let them go.
SNAP.
The three keys slammed together.
There was no explosion. There was only... silence.
The Red, Green, and Blue colors swirled together, spinning faster and faster until they blurred into a single, blinding color.
GOLD.
Not the gold of Feng Xi's fire. This was a heavy, ancient Gold. The color of the original Big Bang.
A sphere formed. It was the size of an apple, but it felt heavier than the star it was orbiting.
[Item Formed: The Origin Orb]
[Rank: ??? (Beyond Concept)]
[Description: The condensed Authority of the Galaxy. Contains the energy of a billion years of cultivation.]
Jiang Chen looked at the Orb. His soul trembled.
"If I eat this," Jiang Chen whispered. "I won't just level up. I'll ascend."
"Husband," Mo You's voice came over the comms, sounding panicked. "The energy readings! The ship sensors are breaking! That thing is emitting radiation that is rewriting reality! Don't touch it!"
"I have to," Jiang Chen said.
He reached out.
He grabbed the Golden Orb.
CONTACT.
It didn't absorb into his inventory. It absorbed into his chest.
It sank right into his Grandmist Core.
[System Alert: CRITICAL OVERLOAD.]
[Energy Input exceeds Maximum Capacity by 1,000,000%.]
[Grandmist Core: Shattering.]
Jiang Chen screamed.
His body began to crack. Beams of golden light shot out of his eyes, his mouth, his pores. The black armor of his Void Walker suit disintegrated instantly.
[Rank Up Initiated.]
[Current Rank: SS (Pseudo)]
The energy surged.
[Rank Up: SSS-Rank... SKIPPED.]
The barrier to SSS-Rank—the level of a Galactic Warlord—was smashed through like a paper wall. The energy didn't even slow down.
[Rank Up: Divine (Low)... SKIPPED.]
[Rank Up: Divine (High)... SKIPPED.]
The Dyson Sphere around him began to melt. The star inside the sphere turned from red to blue, then to purple, resonating with him.
Jiang Chen's consciousness expanded.
He saw the planet Terra Nova. He saw Earth. He saw the Andromeda Market. He saw the Hive World.
He saw the Great Barrier.
He felt the universe breathing.
And then, he opened his eyes.
The cracking stopped. His skin healed, but it wasn't skin anymore. It was flawless, indestructible matter. His hair grew longer, turning a shimmering silver-purple.
A halo of three rings—Black, Gold, and Purple—manifested behind his head.
[Evolution Complete.]
[New Rank: EX (The Sovereign)]
[Title: Ruler of Laws.]
Jiang Chen exhaled.
His breath created a nebula.
"I see," Jiang Chen whispered. His voice didn't echo; it simply was.
He looked at his hand. He clenched his fist.
The Dyson Sphere—a structure the size of a solar system—crumpled. It folded in on itself, compressed by his mere thought, until it was the size of a marble.
He flicked the marble away.
"I am no longer playing the game," Jiang Chen smiled, floating in the open void without a suit, the heat of the star feeling like a pleasant breeze.
"I am the Game Master."
Location: The Void Piercer
Jiang Chen teleported back to the bridge.
Feng Xi dropped her snack. Mo You dropped her dagger.
They stared at him.
He felt... infinite. Standing next to him felt like standing next to a galaxy.
"Husband?" Feng Xi squeaked. "You're... glowing. And you feel... scary."
Jiang Chen smiled, dimming his aura so he wouldn't accidentally crush their souls.
"I'm fine," he said softly, patting her head. "I just skipped a few grades."
He walked to the main viewport. He looked toward the center of the galaxy.
The massive red wall—The Great Barrier—was visible in the distance.
"We have the Key," Mo You said, her voice shaking slightly with awe. "We can open the door."
"We don't need the door," Jiang Chen said.
He raised his hand.
Millions of light-years away, the Great Barrier trembled.
"I am the Key."
Jiang Chen waved his hand.
"Open."
In the distance, the red wall didn't unlock. It shattered.
The path to the Galactic Core—and the Primordial Source—was wide open.
But as the barrier fell, something looked back.
From the darkness of the Core, ten pairs of eyes opened.
The Ten Void Lords.
They sensed it. The birth of an EX-Rank entity.
"HE... IS... AWAKE," The collective voice of the Ten Lords echoed across the universe.
Jiang Chen stared back across the cosmos.
"Ten little bugs," Jiang Chen whispered.
"Coming to get squashed."
[Arc 3 Climax: The Ascension.]
[Next Arc: The War of the Eleven Gods.]
[Objective: Total Extinction of the Void.]