But then, just as the despair became thick enough to suffocate, a rhythmic, thunderous sound tore through the silence.
Snore— Haaa— Snore—
It was the "New Creator's" first declaration to the world after falling from grace: The boss is out of mana; he's currently in hibernation mode.
"GIVE ME BACK MY TEARS, YOU JERK!!"
Ester looked at this "New Creator" who had just wasted fifty liters of her pure, heartfelt tears.
Her face flushed crimson with rage, and she delivered a "Maiden's Hammer" punch directly to his chest—hard enough to rattle his ribs.
"OWWW—!!"
Lawson bolted upright like he'd been electrocuted, hopping around while clutching his chest.
"Ester! Even a God has the right to a nap! That hurts... are you trying to assassinate me to take the throne?!"
Seeing the lively, trash-talking Lawson back on his feet, the boulder sitting on everyone's hearts finally crashed to the ground.
However, as their focus shifted to the "genetically mutated" white-haired girl beside him, a collective scream of shock echoed through the district.
"You... are you really Ester?! We thought some random NPC just spawned out of nowhere!!"
Ester looked down at her skirt, confused.
"I only changed into a light blue outfit, my basic structure is still the same..."
Dodge cleared his throat awkwardly, scratching his head.
"Uh... Ester, have you actually looked at yourself yet?"
Before she could respond, Katie whipped out a shiny mirror from seemingly nowhere and shoved it in front of Ester's face.
Looking at the exquisite, unfamiliar face in the mirror, Ester's hands trembled as she touched her cheeks.
She let out a scream of pure terror.
"W-Why did my hair bleach into this ghostly color?! And my eyes? This purple-black combo... it looks like a funeral palette!"
She immediately spiraled into a crisis of aesthetic anxiety, sobbing into her hands.
"Big brother saved me... but he lost my cute pink color! Waaaaah, I'm not cute anymore!"
Lawson, fed up with the drama, pointed at Ester and snapped, exposing himself in the process.
"What do you know?! I used every ounce of my 'Newborn Authority' to fish you out of the abyss! Since I was the one re-coding you, of course I'm going to use my favorite art style!!"
The silence that followed was absolute.
Lawson's secret obsession, which he had hidden for over twenty years, had just burst out of his mouth in a fit of rage: The truth was out—he was an irredeemable "White-Hair Simp."
Katie's brain stalled. She remembered seeing white-haired figurines hidden in Lawson's bag and his phone wallpaper featuring a silver-haired anime girl... She instinctively touched her own proud, ice-blue hair, her inner monologue going into overdrive:
So he likes that style? No wonder he acted like a block of wood every time I dropped a hint...
Katie made a silent, fierce vow: Tomorrow, I'm buying the strongest, most permanent hair bleach on the market!
Then, her mental theater shifted to the competition: First there was that black-haired vixen from the other town, then Phyllis... no, she's my apprentice, that's weird! She slapped her own cheeks to wake up, her eyes burning with newfound fire.
And now this white-haired vixen appears out of thin air?! The competition is too fierce. I have to speed up the romance plot!
As the farce died down, Lawson's expression suddenly turned grave.
He rubbed his aching chest, his eyes sharp as he scanned the warriors.
"Enough about the hair. How do your bodies feel? The Master Tablet that connected to 'System' just crumbled into dust in front of me. If I hadn't stepped in, Ester would have crumbled too. The old link... it's completely dead."
In the dusty construction site of South Sector 2, Dodge, always the vanguard, was the first to speak.
His thick arm trembled as he shoved his dead phone into Lawson's face.
"Everyone's device is fried! Look, bro, this thing is heavier than a brick now. No matter what I press, nothing happens. Hey, are we really supposed to fight those monsters outside with nothing but our bare flesh?"
"What do you mean? My phone is perfectly fine." Lawson looked confused as he pulled out his own device. He swiped the screen, and the intense light it emitted was so bright it was hard to look at in the dusty ruins.
"See? This screen is bright enough to be a lighthouse."
The group swarmed around him like huddling for warmth, ignoring the rebar and rubble at their feet, staring at the only surviving screen. A series of gasps filled the air.
"It... it really is still alive!!!"
"Hey! You half-baked 'Creator', can't you do something useful?!" George was so frustrated he kicked a piece of scrap metal.
"Since you could re-code Ester, can't you just 'One-Click Restore' our armor permissions? If this keeps up, humanity will have to migrate to outer space before we even get a chance to save the world!"
Sweat, mixed with construction dust, rolled down Lawson's face. His voice grew hoarse with pressure.
"I... I don't damn well know! Everything happened so fast. I haven't even finished the table of contents in my 'Creator's Manual,' and these disasters keep hitting me like a machine gun. A few days ago, I was just an Armor Smith; now I have to carry this 'Authority' on my back. You think this is easy?!"
Compared to her panicked brother, Phyllis remained much calmer. She stepped over a pile of uninstalled cables and stood between the two men.
"Mr. Lawson is right. Anyone else would have collapsed facing a mess that defies common sense. Being impatient won't help. Give him some time."
However, George wasn't buying it. He continued to vent at Lawson.
"How can I be calm?! The world is ending, and the guy in charge is lagging! He can't even spawn basic materials found on the roadside, let alone that massive armor system! Right now, he's just a useless guy holding a nuclear briefcase but forgetting the password!"
Lawson's face paled instantly—not with anger, but with a deep, crushing despondency.
He turned away silently, gazing up at the vast, gloomy sky hanging over the construction site.
His spine seemed to bend under an invisible weight, the cold skeletons of steel beams surrounding him like a cage.
"You're right... you're absolutely right," Lawson said, his voice a self-deprecating murmur.
"As the one holding the Supreme Authority, I can't even manifest a piece of scrap from the roadside, let alone repair the complex system that 'System' spent over a decade meticulously weaving..."
Suddenly, he snapped his head back up. A light of fierce resolution erupted in his eyes—a gaze hotter and more intense than the welding sparks flying across the construction site.
"Fine! Since the Old System has crashed, then I'll just have to bite the bullet and forge a New System! I'll show that 'Unique Existence' that I'm not some useless bystander!"
He snatched the brick-like, dead phone out of Dodge's hand and issued a thunderous declaration to the group:
"If the path the Gods gave us is broken, then I'll use these hands of the Creator to weld a brand-new path right here in the ruins!"