The silence that followed Han Jin's broadcast was absolute.
For three seconds, the entire planet stopped.
In Tokyo, salarymen stared at giant billboards.
In New York, teenagers froze with their thumbs hovering over their screens.
In the deepest jungles, tribal leaders looked at ruggedized tablets dropped by NGOs.
Then, the world erupted.
[BING! CRITICAL TRENDING!]
[Approval Rating: 95% -> 99.9%!]
[System Error: Logic overflow.
Likes are being registered at a rate faster than the server can process.]
The neon cityscape of Floor 2 began to fracture.
Without the dislike energy of the masses to power its corruption, the digital facades peeled away, revealing the raw, green scaffolding of the System underneath.
"You... you madman!" the Moderator shrieked, her hologram flickering between a beautiful woman and a terrifying mass of static.
"You've broken the engagement loop! Without conflict, the floor cannot exist!"
"Then let it crumble," Han Jin said.
He turned to Lin Xi and Fatty Wei.
"The stairs are appearing."
In the center of the street, a massive pillar of green light erupted, leading upward.
But unlike the previous stairs, this one was guarded by a firewall, a literal wall of burning, binary code that sizzled with the power to erase anyone who touched it.
[BING! Floor 2 Cleared (Social Media Phase).]
[Proceeding to Floor 3: The Factory of Souls.]
[Warning: The Firewall requires a Valid Subscription to pass.]
"A subscription?" Fatty Wei looked at the wall of code.
"Do we have to pay in Power Stones?"
"No," Lin Xi said, her eyes glowing with the data-stream of her Andromeda Seal.
"It's worse.
It wants a 'Life-Link'.
To pass that wall, we have to sign over 50% of our future Experience points to the Developer as a Service Fee."
Han Jin walked toward the firewall.
He didn't look at the Terms and Conditions window that popped up in front of him.
He simply reached out and grabbed the edge of the binary flame with his bare hand.
Sizzle.
[WARNING! Unauthorized access!
User is not a Premium Member!]
"I don't pay for what I already own," Han Jin growled.
He pulled out the Rusty Paperclip. "System, link this Firewall to the Unsubscribe button I just hit for the entire world."
With a sound like a hard drive crashing, the wall of code simply... dissolved.
It didn't burn out; it was canceled.
They stepped through the void and onto the next floor.
Floor 3: The Factory of Souls
If Floor 2 was a neon dream, Floor 3 was an industrial nightmare.
They stood on a catwalk overlooking a vast assembly line.
Huge, mechanical arms were plucking glowing orbs,souls from a conveyor belt and stuffing them into cold, metallic chassis that looked like robotic soldiers.
"This is where the Update comes from," Lin Xi whispered, her voice trembling.
"They aren't just digitizing us.
They're recycling the souls of the Deleted to create an army for the Void Core."
"Look at the labels," Han Jin said, pointing to a nearby crate.
The crate was marked:
'Standard NPC Unit - Model: High School Student'.
Inside were rows of vacant-eyed robots that looked exactly like the students from Han Jin's class who hadn't made it to Level 10. They were being re-skinned to serve as fodder for the next wave of the Harvest.
[BING! Welcome to Floor 3: The Factory of Souls.]
[Objective: Sabotage the Production Line.]
[Guardian: The Foreman (Rank: S-Rank Auditor).]
"Sabotage?" Han Jin looked at the cleaver in his hand, then at the massive, pulsating engine at the center of the factory.
"I was thinking more along the lines of a Total Recall "
Suddenly, a heavy, metallic footfall echoed through the factory.
A massive figure emerged from the steam. He was ten feet tall, built entirely of reinforced steel and glowing circuitry, with a giant hydraulic press for a right hand.
[Entity: The Foreman (Rank: S)]
[Level: 110]
[Evaluation: He doesn't care about your Likes.
He only cares about your Efficiency.]
"Productivity is down 0.04%," the Foreman boomed, his voice like grinding gears.
"Anomaly detected in Sector 7.
Initiating... Mandatory Overtime."
The Foreman raised his hydraulic press, and the floor beneath Han Jin began to magnetize, pinning his feet to the metal catwalk.
"Overtime?" Han Jin smirked, his golden eyes reflecting the furnace-fire of the factory. "Sorry, but I'm strictly a '9-to-5' God-Emperor.
And I think it's time for a strike."
He reached into his pocket and felt the Golden Marble , the dormant spirit of the Grand Marshal.
"Old Man," Han Jin whispered.
"I know you're tired.
But this factory is making clones of our people.
I think it's time you showed this Auditor how the Ninth Heaven handles a labor dispute."
The marble in his hand began to pulse with a fierce, blinding heat.
AN:-
Well that's the end of this chapter, soon the season 1 1st volume will come to end.
As i said, there are 4 seasons planned with more crazy , complex and funny stuff especially our aura farming Han Jin.