The sky groaned, unable to bear the burden.
The earth roared in violent spasms.
The ecstasy on the faces of Winred City's residents had barely faded before it was replaced by a tremor originating from the depths of their souls.
They looked up in horror at the sky, which had become a grotesque spectacle, as if Divine Punishment were descending.
Having just escaped the shadow of the Evil God, they plunged into another immense panic of the unknown and their own insignificance.
The sky was brutally torn in two by an invisible, colossal force.
One half retained the familiar azure of Winred City, still holding the warmth of survival after the disaster.
The other half, however, was a completely different, dim yellow canopy, ruthlessly squeezing in from behind the pitch-black fissure.
At the boundary between the two worlds, all laws of physics collapsed in a scream.
Space displayed the chaotic colors of paint being recklessly stirred, with light and shadow twisting into unrecognizable Runes.
Gravitational tides, born from nothingness, swept the debris and soil of the city ruins high into the sky.
The moment those stones reached the boundary between worlds, they were silently crushed into the most basic particle dust.
"Is this... the Apocalypse?" Xia Lian's voice trembled uncontrollably.
"No."
Su Wan's azure eyes reflected the sight of the collapsing sky as a massive stream of data refreshed frantically deep within her pupils.
She murmured, "This is a rule reconstruction of a higher level."
"Every Dungeon is a fragment of some ancient world."
"We... by chance, purified two puzzle pieces of the same world."
As if to confirm her words, a legendary-grade golden light suddenly erupted on the four of their panels, forming a magnificent quest interface.
[ World Quest: Broken World ]
[ Quest Description: The great ancient world "Filianore" was torn apart and polluted by an unknown force, scattered into the void. Once the pollution within the fragments is purified, the rules of the world's origin will guide them to reunite. ]
[ Current World: Filianore ]
[ Number of Major Fragments: 5 ]
[Current Purification Progress: 2/5]
[Mission Objective: Purify all major World Fragments of "Filianore," uncover the truth behind the world's shattering, and assist in its reunification.]
[Mission Reward: ???]
"Filianore... five major fragments..." Lin Qingyue immediately grasped the key information.
"So, there are three more Dungeons of this scale just waiting for us to 'purify.'"
A more excited thought sprouted in her mind:
Alright! An epic quest chain to help Queen Wifey reclaim her lost lands is being handed to me on a silver platter!
Looking at the mission description, Lin Xiyue's eyes burned not with fear, but with a fierce fighting spirit. "So that means we still have three big bosses to fight? Now that sounds exciting!"
The System's notifications weren't over yet.
[ Ding! Detected that squad members Lin Qingyue, Lin Xiyue, Su Wan, and Xia Lian have all accepted their respective class-exclusive missions. ]
[ Ding! Detected that this squad has jointly participated in and led the purification of two major fragments of the "Filianore" world, with extremely high Contribution Points. ]
[ Ding! Class Quests merged and upgraded into an Exclusive Squad Trial Quest! ]
A new quest window directly covered their original Class Quests.
[ Exclusive Squad Trial Quest: Trial of the Heavenly Gods ]
[ Quest Description: Your will and strength have already drawn the attention of higher-level beings. During the process of restructuring the world of "Filianore," you will face trials from the Deities of the Four Directions descended from ancient times. ]
[ Current Trial Progress: 0/4 ]
[ Quest Objective: Find the Deities of the Four Directions and complete their corresponding trials. ]
[ Quest Reward: All members will receive exclusive class equipment, an exclusive squad title, and a special team ability. ]
"The Class Quests have been bound together?" Xia Lian was somewhat surprised.
"This is great, no one can fly off on their own now."
Lin Xiyue threw an arm around Su Wan's shoulder, smiling like a cat that had caught a fish.
"We will 'graduate' on the same year, month, and day from now on."
Su Wan's cheeks instantly flushed red. She made a token struggle but did not actually push away the improper hand.
Lin Qingyue narrowed her eyes.
Trial of the Heavenly Gods.
The name strangely reminded her of a Legendary Grade quest chain from some game in her previous life that made people grind until they went bald.
It seemed that the next three Dungeons would involve dealing with at least four beings whose names contained the word "God."
System notifications were still refreshing.
[ Tip: A world's completion level determines the upper limit of its rules and its energy level. As "Filianore" is restructured, the potential of this world will continuously increase and may eventually return to the glory of the mythological age. ]
"So that's how it is." Lin Qingyue understood.
"The reason Dungeons have level restrictions is because the world's rules are incomplete."
"Once the world puzzle is completed, the version's upper limit will be higher, allowing us to farm stronger monsters and drop better equipment."
A thought stirred in her mind, and a very improper idea emerged.
『In that case... won't Queen Wifey become even stronger the next time I see her? It's a good thing I just managed to snatch a bit of Divine Authority, otherwise, it will be hard to say who gets to call the shots in bed later...』
Just as they were digesting this massive amount of information, a brutally unreasonable repulsive force began to squeeze in from all directions.
That was the instinctive rejection reaction produced by the two World Fragments merging, directed at "foreign objects" like them.
[ Warning! The merging of worlds will trigger a violent spatial tide! It has been detected that you do not belong to the world of "Filianore." The forced teleportation program has been activated! ]
[ Countdown: 60, 59, 58... ]
"We're about to be kicked out!" Lin Xiyue shouted.
"High Priestess Elena!"
Lin Qingyue immediately turned to the High Priestess nearby, who was also standing stunned by the strange changes in the world.
"I'm here!" Elena started, snapped back to her senses, and hurried toward them.
"We're leaving soon."
Lin Qingyue's words were rapid-fire and concise.
"This world is repairing itself, and your God will be truly resurrected. The subsequent reconstruction work will have to rely on you yourselves."
She paused, her gaze sweeping over the four majestic Steam Magitech Mechas, her eyes filled with reluctance.
"If there's an opportunity, we will meet again!"
Elena's eyes instantly reddened.
She opened her mouth, but a thousand words got stuck in her throat, finally forming a determined action.
She took out four gear-shaped badges shimmering with a warm blue light from her robes and stuffed them into Lin Qingyue's hand.
"This is... the God's grace! Please be sure to accept it!"
She took a step back, brought her arms together and crossed them in front of her chest, performing the most solemn salute of the Church of Machinery.
"In the name of the God of Machinery and Creation, Winred City will forever remember your grace! Logic and Order will forever guide your way forward!"
[ Countdown: 3, 2, 1! ]
Lin Qingyue didn't even have time to glance at the attributes of the badges.
A burst of white light erupted, so blinding that it swallowed everything.
The figures of the four young women were instantly erased.
A powerful sensation of spatial tearing washed over them, a feeling not of teleportation, but as if an invisible, titanic hand of the world had seized them and then, with all its might, hurled them out violently.
Lin Qingyue's consciousness was crushed into billions of points of light.
There was no longer any color in her vision, only an endless, ceaseless torrent of data.
There were no longer any sounds in her ears, only the soul-tearing, piercing shriek of the spatial storm.
In this moment, they were no longer "human."
They were "programs" being forcibly uninstalled by the laws of the world, garbled code being roughly dumped into the recycle bin.